Hong Kong leader condemns unusual uptick in withdrawals from organ donation system
Published:Tuesday | May 23, 2023 | 1:50 PM
HONG KONG (AP) — Hong Kong Chief Executive John Lee condemned an unusual rise in the number of withdrawal requests to the city's organ donation system, saying Tuesday that police would investigate suspicious cases.
According to the government, the city's centralised organ donation registration system received nearly 5,800 withdrawal applications in the five months since December, when the government raised the possibility of establishing an organ transplant mutual assistance programme with mainland China.
More than half of the withdrawal applications were found to be invalid, either as duplicate applications or coming from people who had never opted in.
At a regular press briefing, Lee pointed to those who withdrew their applications without ever registering, calling the moves suspicious.
“I severely condemn those who attempt to cause damages to this noble system which saves lives through organ donations,” he said.
“This is a shameful act.”
Hong Kong, a former British colony that returned to China in 1997, has a separate system for matching donated organs to patients and does not have any standing mechanism to share cadaveric organs with institutions in mainland China. Cross-border organ transplants have been permitted on a case-by-case basis if the situation warrants.
Under an opt-in system, Hong Kong currently has more than 357,000 registrants in the financial hub that houses seven million people. Organ donations have been met with resistance in both Hong Kong and China because of an ingrained cultural desire to keep bodies intact.
The government issued a strong-worded statement Monday, saying it could not rule out that a small number of people made withdrawal attempts in a bid to undermine the reputation of the system and to increase administrative burden.
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